Through most of history we’ve bred animals to be disease resistant, or good tempered, or hardy, or delicious. These days, the focus is on one very particular trait: the ability to convert feed into meat as quickly as possible. There are a lot of trade offs for quick growth. To maximize efficiency, we’ve bred out things like hardiness and disease resistance. We’ve also bred out most of the flavor.

The good news is that there are a handful of farmers out there who are still raising heritage breeds—the same breeds that could have been raised by their grandparents, like Red Wattle and Berkshire hogs. Heritage breeds take more time and more care, but they have incredible depth of flavor.